Southern Responses to South Carolina's Secession

HOW SECESSION IS REGARDED.; IN BALTIMORE. IN NEW-ORLEANS. IN MOBILE. IN MONTGOMERY. IN PENSACOLA. IN WILMINGTON. IN PORTSMOUTH. SECESSION IN MISSISSIPPI. MISSISSIPPI AND KENTUCKY. AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA.

The New York Times
Published December 22, 1860

BALTIMORE, Friday, Dec. 21.

South Carolina's secession produced not the slightest sensation here, one way or the other. People seemed relieved and cheerful, and the streets were gaily crowded and business was better. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that if the North now does right, and makes honorable, manly concessions, indicating an absolute determination to cultivate friendly feelings, and will repeal the obnoxious laws, the other Southern States will cheerfully meet them. W.

NEW-ORLEANS, Friday, Dec. 21.

A general demonstration of joy on the secession of South Carolina occurred here to-day. One hundred guns were fired and the Pelican flag unfurled. impromptu secession speeches were made by leading citizens, and the "Marsailles Hymn" and polkas were the only airs played. A bust of CALHOUN was exhibited decorated with a cockade.

An actor announced the secession of South Carolina last night from the stage of the Varieties. It was received with enthusiasm.

MOBILE, Thursday, Dec. 20.

The secession of South Carolina was celebrated here this afternoon by the firing of a hundred guns, the cheers of the people, and a military parade. There is great rejoicing.

The bells are now ringing merrily, and the people are out in the streets by hundreds, testifying their joy at the triumph of secession. Many impromptu speeches are being made, and the greatest excitement everywhere exists.


MOBILE, Friday, Dec. 21 -- P.M.

There is an immense secession meeting here to-night. The wildest enthusiasm is displayed. The oldest men are taking a prominent part in the proceedings.

Many places are illuminated in honor of South Carolina to-night.

MONTGOMERY, Ala., Thursday, Dec. 20.

Gov. MOORE has ordered one hundred guns to be fired at noon to-morrow, in honor of the secession of South Carolina.


PENSACOLA, Fla., Thursday, Dec. 20.

The secession of South Carolina is greeted with immense enthusiasm here. One hundred guns are being fired in honor of the event.

WILMINGTON, Friday, Dec. 21.

One hundred guns were to-day fired in honor of the secession of South Carolina.

PORTSMOUTH, Friday, Dec. 21.

Fifteen guns were fired to-day. The Palmetto flag was displayed at Norfolk.

WASHINGTON, Friday, Dec. 21.

A dispatch from the editor of the Mississippian and State Gazette, published at Jackson, to the Mississippi delegation in Congress, dated this, evening, states that Mississippi has elected Delegates to the State Convention in favor of separate State Secession by a very large majority -- say seventy in the Convention of one hundred delegates, and by a popular majority of 30,000 votes.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Friday, Dec. 21.

Hon. W.S. FEATHERSTONE, Commissioner from Mississippi, had an Interview with Gov. MAGOFFIN, at Frankfort, yesterday. The result of it is not yet known. He arrived here to-day.

NORFOLK, Va., Thursday, Dec. 20.

A large meeting of citizens was held at Ashland Hall last night. Resolutions were adopted recommending the holding of National and State Conventions; opposing coercion; favoring the arming of the State, and declaring against the opening of the African Slave-trade.


Here is a link to the above article in The New York Times Archive:  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A1FFD3859127A93C0AB1789D95F448684F9&scp=17&sq=secession,%20south%20carolina&st=cse

Hell No, We've Not Forgotten!



Fort Sumpter National Monument, Charleston, South Carolina


EDITOR's NOTE:  Even though I disagree with many of the Northern perspectives and false persumptions in this New York Times article, I do find it interesting to see what the Yankess are saying about us Southrons.

In the South, the Civil War has not been Forgotten.

 The New York Times
By Edward Rothstein

FORT SUMTER, S.C.

Stand atop the unexcavated mound of earth that covers part of this 19th-century fort and gaze northward over its half-disinterred ruins. Across the harbor, you can just make out the rooftops on which the inhabitants of Charleston stood 150 years ago this April, cheering as the fort — along with its some four score United States soldiers — was bombarded by the troops of the newly formed Confederate States of America. “A thrill went through the whole city,” wrote the aide de camp of the leader of the Confederate forces, Brig. Gen. Pierre Beauregard. “It was felt that the Rubicon was passed.”

It was the beginning of the Civil War. Or, as it is sometimes called here, the War Between the States. Or more provocatively: the War of Northern Aggression.

As commemorations of the war’s sesquicentennial begin this spring, with special exhibitions and symposia adding to the already extensive historical treatments that can be sampled at battlefields and museums reaching from Gettysburg to New Orleans, it might seem that the war’s heritage is relatively simple. As seen from a perch up North, the war’s purpose is morally and politically clear. Slavery’s abolition, like Lincoln’s powerful redefinition of the nation’s principles, set the United States on a path toward equality that it might have never found through antebellum thickets. The Civil War created contemporary America.


But spend some time in Southern museums, and it becomes clear that what seems evident up North is here clouded and contested. And if, in the North, the war seems part of a continuum of history, here it remains a cataclysm. The war was not a continuation of Southern history; it was a break in it. And that is still, for the South, the problem.

Even if Southern commemorations fully celebrate the Union that grew out of that war and readily repudiate slavery and its principles, disorientation is mixed with commemoration. The past is renounced, but not fully. The dead are remembered, but what about their cause? Nearly every war site and exhibition I have seen in the South wrestles with double perspectives and conflicting sentiments alien to the North.

There's more.  For the full article go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/arts/design/in-the-south-civil-war-has-not-been-forgotten.html?_r=1&src=me

New York Times Reports on Black Confederate Soldiers

In an article dated March 1, 1861, from the archives of the New York Times, is a very interesting story which reports on the black soldiers who served "extensively" in the ranks of the Confederate army.  Despite the overwhelming historical evidence that confirms thousands of black men, slave and free, fought to defend the Confederacy, some Union historical revisionists still try to deny the reality of the Black Confederate.  It destroys their whole false premise that the War to Prevent Southern Independence was fought to end slavery.  

Interestingly, the same article also confirms that large numbers of black men were unwilling to take up arms against the South  Instead, they were forced against their wills to serve in Mr. Lincoln's War.   

Below is an excerpt, followed by a link to the complete article:

Negro Soldiers  

The following advertisement, from the Savannah Republican, with the letter from Capt. W.S. DAVIS, are given as sufficient demonstration that the rebels have employed negroes:


THIRTY DOLLARS REWARD. -- Deserted from Company A, Twenty-ninth Georgia Regiment, stationed at Dawton Battery, on Savannah River, JOHN ROSS, 22 years of age, about 5 feet 7 inches in height, complexion a brown black. He is a free negro, and an excellent drummer; was enlisted Oct. 10, 1861, and deserted Nov. 13, 1862. He is at present concealed in Savannah. W.H. BILLAPP,

Captain Commanding Dawton Battery.

Extract from a private letter of Capt. W.S. Davis.

DEAR SIR: In answer to your inquiry, I would state that after the battle of West Point I walked over the field and saw the dead bodies of four Negroes dressed in Confederate uniforms, and wearing their cartridge-boxes and roundabouts.

I have heard Confederate prisoners acknowledge that the blacks are used as soldiers, and they argue that they are willing to fight against us.

At Yorktown I saw myself plainly the negroes working the enemy's heavy guns.

I have not the slightest doubt, from my own observation and from conversation with our returned prisoners and captured enemies, that the negroes are extensively used by the enemy.

I have no doubt the negro will fight, and I saw a negro servant in the thickest of the fight at Fredericksburgh, who fired away sixty rounds, and was as cool as any man on the field.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W.S. DAVIS, Capt. and A.A.G.


Here is a link to the complete article in the New York Times archives: http://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/01/news/negro-soldiers-private-letter-gen-hunter-colored-regiment-massachusetts.html?scp=55&sq=negro%20confederate&st=cse

Washington Post and New York Times report on Negro Confederate Soldier

This brief article about a black Confederate soldier during the War Between the States first appeared in the Washington Post. It was re-printed in The New York Times, October 12, 1902. The article is quoted verbatim below, including the Northern newspapers' use of the racist term “Sambo” in reference to the brave black Confederate:

Negro Confederate Sharpshooter

“One of the annoying sharpshooters on the Confederate side at Yorktown was a negro. He was very clever with the rifle. Several mornings he had climbed a tree and picked off the Union sharpshooters as fast as he could get a good aim at them. He climbed into a tree one morning a little in advance of the other Confederate sharpshooters. One of the Confederate rifle pits was only about twenty rods away, but Sambo was not aware of that. A soldier secured good aim and ordered the negro out, but he refused to come, and a moment later fell dead with a bullet through his head. – Washington Post

Here is a link to the article in The New York Times archives:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9504E4DD1E3DEE32A25751C1A9669D946397D6CF

Another Black Confederate Veteran in the New York Times Archives

Here's another interesting article I've found in the archives of the New York Times which tells of a Black Confederate Veteran. One such article might be overlooked, but the large multitude of such accounts which are constantly being uncovered indicates that today's "politically correct" view of the Confederacy may not be historically accurate.

Negro Confederate Veteran Shot

-

DALLAS, Tex., June 14 - Two negroes, Henson Williams and his son William, were shot dead from ambush in Brazos County, while they were plowing in a field. Officers were searching for a white man who is believed to have shot them. The elder Williams fought through the Civil War as a soldier and made such a good record that he was a full member of the Confederate Veterans' camp at Milliken. The old white Confederate soldiers are enraged at the assassination and threaten vengeance on the assassin when captured.

Here is a link to the article, which was published June 15, 1900, in the New York Times:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E01E0D61F3CE433A25756C1A9609C946197D6CF

New York Times Reports Rebel Negro Soliders

Here is a very interesting article from the archives of The New York Times, dated May, 12, 1863, Page 3, column 4. It concerns the Battle of Grand Gulf which was fought in Mississippi on April 29, 1863. Below, I quote the article verbatim and in full:

REBEL NEGRO SOLDIERS - The naval attack on the Rebel batteries at Grand Gulf, on the 28th ult. of which our correspondent yesterday furnished an account, seems to have been a very hard-fought affair. Our killed and wounded amount to seventy-six, and the damage to the gunboats was considerable. The Tuscumbia, a turreted iron-clad, was completely riddled in every portion not protected by plating. Her chimneys were perforated until they resembled huge graders, and her woodwork torn to splinters in every conceivable shape. Her turrets alone, in their thickest parts, were able to resist the projectiles hurled against her. She was finally disabled by a shot that cut one of her log chains, by which, in river phrase, she was "broken in two". The Lafayette proved herself the most formidable as well as invulnerable vessel of the fleet, for though struck a number of times, she was shot in the slightest degree injured.

The entire number of rebel batteries in the works was ten, each of which mounted from three to five guns. The point we wish specially to signalize, however, in connection with this affair, is one mentioned by our correspondent, that the guns in this formidable series of rebel works, which caused such casualties to our sailors, and such damage to our iron-clads, "were in the main worked by negro troops." Is it not horrible that the rebels should thus arm their slaves to slaughter white men and destroy the Union?

Here is a link to the story in the New York Times archives: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D01EEDE163EEE34BC4A52DFB3668388679FDE